Follow along as I explore the world...
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Saturday, April 18, 2015

Geocaching the Big Island

Nothing is better than spending a day randomly hiking in the woods and exploring new trails. Thankfully geocaching was invented for nerds like myself to encourage us to get out and explore the world while still getting to use technology.

Nothing is better than using space-age technology to find tupperware hidden by fellow dorks in the woods. Thank God for nerds with a lot of spare time on their hands.

The day started out with a quick hike down a native plant trail in Waimea, Hawaii. I absolutely love the bridge that I found while hiking. Thankfully there were two geocachers that were hidden near the site of the bridge so that added to the allure. Also, did I mention it was a pretty cool little bridge?

Cool, Right?

After a few new finds, I was glad to find this guy with my eyes and not my hands. Thankfully I noticed it before I decided to squat down and reenact something out of Loony Toons.

Ouch

For some reason, I always find it quite funny to think of cactus growing in Hawaii. I know that we have almost all of the climates that exist here on the Big Island of Hawaii, but it still never ceases to amaze me with the diversity that one can see in a day. I started the day out in a tropical rain forest that was getting a deluge of rain, and by lunch I was hiking around in the middle of what I would consider a desert with cactus and brush. Go figure!

One of the other joys of caching is finding some of the random historical location that are scattered throughout the island. Down an aptly named "mud lane" you can find an old Portuguese oven located about 100 feet back in the woods. You can either find it by searching the woods for the three miles that it takes to get there, or you can get the GPS coordinates to the geocache that is located inside the oven that dates to 1927. Your choice.

See How Good You Look After 90 Years in the Jungle

While out geocaching you do tend to run into various other people or animals. Of course, the last thing you want to run into is something that is predatory. Thankfully the native Hawaiian jaguar is a bit rare these days, so the worst you tend to run into are these guys.

Known to Eat Humans...

The best thing while out geocaching is not always the cache, but what you see when you are not expecting anything at all. Of course there will always be something to see in nature that just takes your breath away, but sometimes little gems like this pop into your life.